22.11.16

How was the
situation - on pricing issues - at your company before you joined the Certified
Pricing Manager Program? What were the challenges?
In the pharma industry, knowledge of Market Access and Pricing is critical to
ensure growth on profitability. Therefore, the main challengefor a company like LFB is to increase the level of
pricing knowledge and spread it to the operational teams and affiliates. The
pricing function has been created in the access dept only mid-2015. We
basically start from scratch in pricing which was really challenging when we
have to launch products. Therefore, many projects have been conducted at the
same time including pricing governance, pricing policies, pricing strategy for
new products, tender management, change management…

What
triggered you to join the CPM® programme? The
pricing position in the LFB is new and the challenge is high. I wanted to know
more about pricing and how I have to move forward to succeed in my new
position. What are the different stages of pricing? What are the mistakes to
avoid? How can I improve the margin and the value of our products?... many
questions to solve before building pricing in the LFB. What was interesting is
the broader vision of the subject, not limited to our business specificities.

How did the
CPM ® programme help you to develop the pricing maturity in your
organisation?

I appreciated the CPM®_level2
programme as, it was oriented on “how we can sell and avoid margin leakage?”.
Really result and profit oriented. Today, I noticed that a wrong pricing
leads to “leave money on the table”. So, how can we define a price in a country
for a product and who can decide a price? The CPM®_level2 programme helps me to find
answer to these 2 questions and I succeed to set up a methodology for each
pricing strategies, going into deeper analyses of prices in a country to find
the right price leading to revenue maximization. The right price is not a price
based on cost!

Give a
short description of the project you delivered for the certification project.
What was the challenge and what were the concrete results in €.To avoid pricing leakage, a right pricing governance and
pricing policies have to be set up. Level up operation teams and change the
mentality is critical for the LFB. Our goal through this project is to reach a
maturity in this field and train the International operational teams to be more
efficient during tendering and contracting situation. è Think Revenue Maximization. Important Instant gains

What was
the impact on the profit margin? Will the training result in other concrete
projects on pricing?Significant number
of K€ in 10 months, but also a start of change in the company on how to
approach prices (more robust business case, higher starting points…). Other
pricing projects are ongoing. We are focusing today on a launch of a new
product with a new pricing approach (value based pricing). Tender project is
ongoing we expect through this project a better approach in tendering avoiding
pressure on the supply chain and maximizing revenue.

How do you
feel now after completing this programme? What has changed, like in more
visibility, more top level support in pricing in your company, better
stakeholder relationships, more involvement in innovation, clear KPI’s,…Such results allow to have a better support from the
management and the top management. It helps a lot to spread the pricing
knowledge in the company and bring new opportunities to start new projects
linked to pricing. Mostly, it comforts us in the choice we have made in the
company to strengthen the function. Moreover, it also helps building the
pricing plan for the coming year

You have
been a pricing manager since several years now. How has the function of
‘pricing manager’ evolved during the years? Pricing
role in the pharma is strongly linked to market access. Theses 2 functions have
to involved earlier in launches to well define the profitability expected from
the management. Pricing is also dynamic and specific to each country. As a price
in a country can affect a price in another country a pricing manager has then
an operational and global role. As long as price will impact the bottom line of
a P&L – it means always – a pricing manager will be involved in strategic
projects having always a vision of revenue maximization.

Got interested in the Certified Pricing Manager programme, developed by the European Pricing Platform? Find all the information on content and calendar here. If you need more information, do not hesitate to contact britt.dejager@pricingplatform.eu.

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About the European Pricing Platform

European Pricing Platform is a ‘Not-for-Profit’ knowledge sharing place focused to support business management, pricing and profit optimisation professionals and CXO-level executives in Europe over a variety of industries and sectors. Our target is to update the pricing and profit optimisation know-how of the business manager. Our mission is to be the on- and offline pricing media for international decision makers in a wide range of industries. The interactive sharing, collecting and development of pricing and profit optimisation knowledge are the key elements of our platform.

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